Search History

I can’t read properly at work, I can’t shop productively
as ‘adult bike’ brings pornography. I can’t browse articles edgy enough
to mutter ‘fuck’ and ‘life drawing’ comes up blank but
a search for ‘mature cheddar’ presses buttons I’d rather
not have to go figure, though even I can understand
an obvious failure to stomach ‘chicken breasts’ cooked,
raw, or ‘other’, and the poems you sent are barred
because I hope they’re bad. A pissy note left somewhere
for you to ‘be more accessible’ goes missing under searches
around the region of ‘shoes for men’; not ‘young men’, not ‘18-25’,
then, as if I was about to type inches, it got me again.

Please send me the word documents with an empty header
else it’s all white boxes where you mean to put the letters.
I stress, I am not angry I am just merely out of options.
If you will take it personally, try a grounded flight to ‘Bra
zil’ and remember to include the space this time.
Seriously, I would bear in mind your audience not your style,
this time I will be reading with my contrast turned down;
I am so sick of all your sore thumbs, you hack.

Callum Coles

Callum Coles was born in 1991 and currently lives and works in Manchester, having moved there from Sheffield for University in 2009. He completed his MA in creative writing at the University of Manchester in 2013. He received second prize in the Torriano International Poetry competition in 2014.